Blood on the Ice

This side quest takes place entirely within the city of Windhelm. It can be available once your character has visited the city a certain minimum number of times, either by fast travel or by simply leaving and returning through the front gate, and begins when the player enters the graveyard district near the Temple of Arkay. A Windhelm city guard who is watching over the aftermath of a recent homicide there will halt the player's progress to inquire if your character has seen anyone suspicious fleeing the scene.

When the player enters the graveyard district, there will be a city guard and a few NPC characters standing near the scene of a grisly murder. A young woman lies dead, and is being tended to by the Priestess of Arkay under the watchful eye of the guard. If the player speaks to the guard and asks what happened, the guard will mention that this seems to be just the latest in a string of murders with the same modus operandi that have been taking place in Windhelm of late, but nobody has been able to witness the culprit and the city guards are spread too thin to be able to invetigate. This is where the player comes in.

Ask the guard if they need help with the investigation, and the guard agrees as long as permission is obtained from the Jarl's assistant before you go snooping around. The Jarl's assistant can be found within the Palace of the Kings, the keep in Windhelm wherein Ulfric Stormcloak presides and coordinates the Stormcloak Rebellion with his military advisors. During the day he is often nearby the Jarl's throne, but by night he may be found sleeping on a bedroll in the keep's kitchen just off the throne room. Speak to him, and he gives you permission to proceed, pledging both his support and that of the city guards if needed.

With permission granted, head back outside to speak to the guard in the graveyard again. He or she will ask you to interrogate the witnesses who are standing nearby, none of whom can give you any useful information about the murderer. Speak to the guard again and relate the lack of any findings, and he or she will confirm that this is typically what has happened for all of the previous murders. The guard suggests that the player speak with the Priestess of Arkay in order to learn if any details about the condition that the bodies were found in might offer any clues about the murderer, and also warns that the Priestess is a strange one!

Enter the catacombs of the Hall of the Dead and find within the Priestess, who is already engaged in preparing the body for its eternal rest. Aside from a bit of gallow's humor, she also imparts the details of the victim's wounds, which were inflicted by a curved blade not unlike that of one of the embalming tools she uses frequently herself. Outside of her own line of work, she has only ever seen such a tool used by necromancers. While interesting, this revelation doesn't quite provide any new leads, so exit the Hall of the Dead to search for more clues.

Outside once more, the murder scene confronts you with more evidence: the victim's blood is pooled not only where the body was found, but also several large smears of it leading away from the area. Following it, you arrive at the doorstep of an abandoned house, its front door firmly locked. At this point, if your LockpickingSkill is high enough you may attempt to pick the lock; otherwise you will need to speak to several different NPC's around town in order to acquire the key. Either way, enter the abandoned house to continue your search.

Upon entering the house, you quickly note the presence of cobwebs and a thick layer of dust on its interior surfaces; it appears that nobody has been here in a long time. Upon closer inspection though, you notice another trail of blood smears leading to a small chest that has been pushed up against the far left wall. It too bears spatters of blood on its surface, and within you find a number of pamphlets warning of the night creature its author, a local woman known as Viola, calls "The Butcher", along with a journal. Read the journal, and it speaks of the horrible intentions of its owner. In it is described a motive behind the murders, which is that the killer is collecting body parts for some nefarious purpose. This is one seriously disturbed individual!

Moving farther into the house, you notice a wardrobe and a bookcase on the far wall, and another wardrobe to your right as you enter a small alcove. The wardrobe yields only a few articles of clothing, but the bookcase next to it has several more of the pamphlets you encountered in the chest, as well as a strange amulet lying beneath them. As you examine the other wardrobe, it reveals a false back that can be opened, leading into a secret room filled with the bloody, skeletal remains of prior victims strewn about the floor. An operation table sits in the center, its surface marred with congealed blood, and to its left is a set of shelves bearing the implements with which these bodies were dissected.

Upon one of the shelves is another journal, this one just as graphic as the previous one and further detailing the owner's intention to use the collected body parts in some sort of necromantic ritual. Furthermore, it indicates that its owner doesn't quite have all the components needed, necessitating yet another murder, and soon! Having gathered these key pieces of evidence, you're now done here.

With all of this evidence in hand, head back outside and speak with the first city guard you see. Ask about the strange amulet and you'll be directed to speak with a Windhelm resident who operates a sort of curio shop, and who might know more about it because of his known interest in items such as this. Ask about the pamphlets, and the guard will tell you that its author has been at this leaflet campaign for months, ever since the murders started, ostensibly to raise awareness of the dangers but instead is viewed as somewhat of a nuisance by both the city guard and the local populace.

Speak to the curio shop owner and he'll tell you that the amulet is one typically carried by the Jarl's court wizard, and offers to buy it off you for 500 gold. *Note: This is very easiy to miss and if you did not grab the amulet the game will skip over this portion of the quest. Doing so you will break the quest, and it will end with you incriminating the court wizard* You may agree to sell it to him or keep it; either way you still have another lead to follow up. Speak to the old woman Viola about her pamphlets, and she tells you that when the present court wizard first arrived in Windhelm, it was amid speculation that he had been involved with necromancy while at the College of Winterhold. Perhaps you should have a chat with him and let him explain? Meanwhile, she decides she wants to see the secret room for herself and asks you to meet her there later.

At this point, the quest can continue in one of two ways. Either return to the Jarl's assistant and name the court wizard as the murderer, or speak with the wizard to hear his side of the story and possibly lead you elsewhere. If you accuse the wizard of murder, he is subsequently hauled away in irons to the keep's prison to await trial; but soon afterward there is another murder with the same calling card. Evidently the real killer is still at large, and you've accused the wrong man!

Fortunately you can continue the investigation by speaking with the court wizard in his jail cell at this point, or if you chose to hear his side of the story earlier he tells you that he's been studying the murders himself and has identified a pattern. All of the murders so far have coincided with dates and times of significance, if one is a practitioner of necromancy. Further, he tells you that if the pattern holds, there will be another murder soon. Very soon. Within the next few nights, it is likely that the killer will strike again, but this time within the market district. He advises you to begin patrolling that area immediately so as to catch the killer in the act.

Patrol the market district, after about 5pm (in game) the murderer appears and kills another young lady. You then give chase, the murderer will make his way back to the abandoned house. Once inside he (Calixto Corrium) will attack you. Kill and loot his body. You then have to go and tell Jorleif what has happened. Once telling him, he tells you that you've done a great service for Windhelm and that the guards will be nicer to you.

You may prefer to kill Calixto as he approaches his intended victim. The quest will resolve as normal, and you will save the life of an innocent young girl!

I was able to throw the glitch by punching the killer. The glitch I encountered was the killer walking up behind and the stabbing another girl but nothing happened, I walked up to the killer and still nothing until I punched him and then i was able to follow him to the house and completed the quest.